PATIENTS battling to have a Birmingham doctor struck off have won an inquiry.

PATIENTS battling to have a Birmingham doctor struck off have won an inquiry.

But, in "a final insult to the victims", campaigners will be banned from most of the disciplinary hearing against Dr Osahon Andrew Gbinigie.

Dr Gbinigie, of Tanglewood, Barnt Green, faces a General Medical Council hearing on his medical performance on Monday. Because of a legal loophole, the bulk of the twoweek hearing will be held behind closed doors.

Complainants will be able to give evidence, but then they must stay away from the rest of the hearing. Under GMC rules, hearings on complaints which were logged before last November are still held in private, although more recent cases are now open to the public.

Thirty-five women, Fighting For Faith, claim they have all suffered at the hands of Dr Gbinigie, and 15 of them will be giving evidence.

Campaigner Nicki Evans Young described the ban as the final insult to victims.

"A group of 35 women have waited two and a half years for this case and we are angry that because of a date, we can not hear all the evidence," said mother-of-five Nicki, of Mount Pleasant, Kingswinford, near Dudley.

"We want to ensure it is not a whitewash - and what better way than to have it all in public, so everything can be reported and open?

"That doctor has had a traumatic effect on so many women and they should be given the chance to see justice done."

Nicki became pregnant after a failed attempt by Gbinigie to sterilise her and was awarded a five-figure settlement out of court by Dudley Group of Hospitals, which admitted liability when she filed a complaint against the consultant gynaecologist.

Dr Gbinigie, a 49-year-old father of two, lives with his primary school teacher wife Kiki in Barnt Green.

Trained in Nigeria, he worked across Birmingham and the Black Country before being found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the GMC in March 2003. The GMC heard how a 21-year-old woman had almost died during an abortion he carried out at the private Calthorpe Clinic, in Edgbaston.

Dr Gbinigie escaped being struck off the medical register and was allowed to continue operating if he retarined and carried out abortions close to intensive care.

A GMC spokeswoman said the latest hearing would investigate the surgeon's medical performance and could lead to him being suspended for up to 12 months.

"This hearing is totally confidential," she said. "There has been a change in regulations, so if the complaints had come in after November last year, it would have been in public."